


Salt on my shores

by CaptainSif



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Advent Calendar, Banter, Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27641506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainSif/pseuds/CaptainSif
Summary: Chris makes holiday decorations for their home. Domestic Buddie fluff ensues.Buddie Advent 2020, Prompt: Homemade Holiday Decorations
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 93
Collections: 25 (More) Days Of Buddie





	Salt on my shores

**Author's Note:**

> Today is the tenth day of December and as such you get to open _this_ door that I prepared for you!
> 
> The prompt was "Homemade Holiday Decorations" and I got inspired by some decorations I made as a child for Christmas!  
> As always, this went into a slightly different direction than initially planned but am I even writing if that's not what happens? XD
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Thanks a lot to [Marcia Elena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/marciaelena) and [aone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnyangel) for organising this and to [Phoenix911](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixOfTheBAU) for beta reading this fic!

The door to their house clicks closed as Buck carries the groceries through the corridor into the kitchen. Eddie is standing at the stove, cooking, and looks up when Buck slides up to him, the two of them sharing a quick kiss to say hello.

“I brought bell pepper,” Buck says, getting two of them out of the grocery bags and putting it down on the countertop next to Eddie.

“Thank you” Eddie replies, rifling through their cutlery drawer in search of a good knife.

“They had a sale on the cereals you and Chris eat so I got a few more packages” Buck continues, putting them away “I also bought some gingerbread cookies for Chris to take to school and for us to take to the station. I thought it might be nice.” He looks up to see Eddie smiling at him while chopping the bell pepper.

“Don’t chop off your finger,” he directs Eddie’s way “you still need them.”

Eddie laughs and turns back to the countertop, his knife making a noise when it lands on the wooden cutting board.

“I got everything on our list besides vanilla sugar, so I had to get vanillin sugar,” Buck winces before shrugging “But it should be alright. I don’t think we’ve ever used  _ real  _ vanilla sugar before. We’ll survive one more time without.”

“The recipe  _ explicitly _ calls for vanilla sugar.”

“They all do” Buck cries out, good-naturedly rolling his eyes at Eddie. “You can always subtract it with vanillin sugar. And it’s cheaper.”

“But not when vanilla is in the name of the pastry” Eddie interjects.

Buck sighs. “Well, I got you your vanilla beans.”

Eddie turns back around to look at Buck and leans forward to drop another kiss on his lips. “Thank you.”

Buck grins. “You’re welcome.” Over Eddie’s shoulder he perceives what looks like colorful Christmas cookies cooling out on a baking tray.

“Oh, did Christopher make these with his friend earlier?” he asks, reaching out to grab one and pop it into his mouth.

“Don’t eat it!” Eddie rushes toward him, his voice going into a higher pitch.

Buck lowers his hand that’s holding the cookie, suspiciously inspecting the white-ish grainy dough and the stark red and green icing.

He lifts an eyebrow. “Are they poisonous?”

“They’re decorations” Eddie informs him “they aren’t meant to be eaten.”

Buck furrows his brows. “They made cookies? That are not to be eaten? But supposed to serve as decorations?” He laughs. “You don’t think Chris will actually stick to that. A few days and they’ll all be gone. He won’t even notice that I ate one of them.”

Amusement takes over Eddie’s face. “Well, you can try, but you’re seriously gonna regret eating it. It’s salt dough.”

“What the fuck is salt dough?” Buck grimaces. “Doesn’t sound very tasty.”

Eddie laughs as Buck puts the cookie back on the tray. “It’s not. Apparently, it’s some kind of self-made modeling dough. Good for kids because it’s not toxic.”

“Except for the whole salt thing.”

“Still not healthy to eat” Eddie agrees “but I’m not sure you can bite through it anyway. The finished cookies are pretty hard.”

“You want me to prove that I can?” Buck teases.

“Please don’t. We can’t afford the dentist’s bill.”

Buck laughs, then steps closer to the tray, taking in the different cookies lying around. He recognizes some shapes of their own cookie cutters, as well as some new ones, likely belonging to Christopher’s friend. What he thought to be icing when he picked it up earlier, turns out to be some kind of glazing the children painted the cookies with.

“They really don’t look too bad.” He praises.

Eddie nods, leaning back against the counter he was previously cutting bell pepper on. “We could put some ribbons through them and hang them on the tree.”

“Sounds good.”

So that's what they do, the three of them, sitting in their living room, the salt dough cookies and multiple rolls of colorful bands that Eddie went out to buy explicitly for this occasion all strewn between them, and each of them a painted cookie in hand, fiddling one end of the fabric through the hole to tie it around the other once it pushed through. Slightly off to the side stand three cups of hot cocoa and somewhere between all the ruffles and rolls, there's also a box with  _ edible _ Christmas cookies. That last one was Buck's idea ("Would be fitting, don't you think?") that Eddie was vehemently against because he already saw this afternoon ending with someone chipping his tooth off after biting into the wrong cookies. He fears that might as well be him.

All that to say: Buck knows the cookies that should be hanging on their Christmas tree. He's seen them all, on the first tray, in the box they kept them in after, on the table when they were tying the ribbons. He's seen them enough times around the house to know how many there are or at least how many there _ should be _ .

So when Buck comes home one evening, a few days later, and catches sight of the decorated fir tree in their living room, he can't help but notice that there are more salt dough figurines than there should be if Eddie and Chris had put up all the ones they prepared earlier.

Not by a lot, subtle enough not to be excessive, but enough not to fool Buck.

Curiosity piqued, he approaches the tree, lifting up the designs unfamiliar to him. They're innocuous enough: some hearts, some stars, some snowflakes and Christmas trees, not too different from the ones Chris had made with his friend.

But then Buck's eyes and hands land upon a ring of some kind. Most of it is painted yellow (Buck assumes it's meant to represent gold, and he admits it looks close enough) but there's a small tint of blue towards the other side of the ring, the one that was facing towards the stem of the tree initially. Buck's breath catches in his throat.

His mind occupied, Buck only realizes Eddie has slipped into the room once he clicks the terrace door close behind him. He jumps a little at the sound, causing Eddie to laugh and tease him about it.

“What’s got you so jumpy today?” Eddie slides up next to Buck, leaning in for a kiss but stopping in his tracks once he realizes what it is that Buck’s holding. Then he laughs. “I thought I would have a little more time until you found it.”

A grin spreads on Buck’s face, his eyes lifting to Eddie’s, with a mischievous glint in his eyes but the ring still spinning between his fingers.

“Really, Eddie?” he asks “the next time you don’t want me to find something maybe don’t hide it in plain sight, oh wait, I think  _ hiding _ might be a bit too strong of a word.”

Eddie huffs.  “It was meant for you to find. But I thought it would take you a little longer. Guess you know me too well.” Buck winks at him in response. “I guess that’s why I hung it up in the first place.”

“Is that so?” Buck says, too smug for Eddie to believe the faux innocence put into that phrasing.

“I think I changed my mind,” Eddie says, turning around, but they both know he doesn’t mean it.

So when Buck grabs him, turns him around, and pulls him closer, he leans in for a kiss.

“I wanna hear it,” Buck says, not letting him go, a soft look in his eyes that don’t leave Eddie’s face.

“You wanna hear what?”

Buck huffs a laugh. “The speech you have prepared.”

Eddie crinkles his eyes. “Why do you think there’s a speech?”

“You expect me to say yes without a speech?” Buck lifts his eyebrows accusingly, before lifting the ring next to them. “And to a ring made out of salt dough?”

Eddie laughs. “Don’t act like you wouldn’t say yes if I presented you with a paper ring.”

“But only because I love you.”

“Well, everything else would be kind of embarrassing now.”

Buck laughs, leaning his forehead against Eddie’s for a second before asking again. “So I don’t get a speech?”

“It’s symbolic,” Eddie explains after an affected sigh. “The ring. We can’t wear rings at work anyway and I knew you’d scold me for picking up extra shifts just to buy an engagement ring you’ll hardly wear and because I couldn’t wait for you to do it instead and you seem to have become quite the fan of salt dough decorations, so I thought why not. We’ll get real rings for our wedding anyway and this is… something personal.”

“That’s cute,” Buck admits, leaning forward to plant a kiss on Eddie’s lips. “And my answer is yes, obviously.”

Eddie drags Buck even closer and deepens the kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Please forgive me for what feels like a baking rant, I just... love baking. 
> 
> For what Eddie wanted to bake with vanilla sugar:  
> I was thinking of _[Vanillekipferl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanillekipferl) _ ("vanilla crescent cookies" apparently) but you're free to think of whatever since that seems to be a highly regional thing. 😄
> 
> As I was totally not thinking of Paper Rings by Taylor Swift while writing this, the [spotify](https://link.tospotify.com/dBABT9C6ybb) and the [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zdg-pDF10g) link to the song.
> 
> And last but not least [here's a link to a salt dough recipe](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-make-salt-dough-recipe).
> 
> You can share this on [tumblr](https://captain--sif.tumblr.com/post/637107053581762560/salt-on-my-shores) or check it out on [wattpad](https://www.wattpad.com/story/250784209-salt-on-my-shores).


End file.
